Jackson Free Press

"A restaurant-as-icon is at 509 North Farish St. The Big Apple Inn, 354-9371, has been at that location over 60 years—just north of the Collins Funeral Home and across the street from Central United Methodist Church.

Now, for those Jacksonians who tend to spend time near the intersection of North State Street and Northside Drive, there's a second Big Apple Inn at 4487 North State St., 984-3704, in the Northwood Shopping Center. Both restaurants have the same hours and days: 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, closed on Sunday and Monday, and open late until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Many a person has walked out the door on Farish Street, paper sack in hand—filled with sandwiches, be they bologna, pig-ear, smoked sausage or hot dog. Or maybe there's a half dozen or a dozen tamales in there. No matter, the menu at the new location is the same; so are the prices—sandwiches, 85 cents each, tamales $3.50 for six and $6 for 12.

Just think, if you don't want anyone to know that you've gone off your diet, you could go to both locations on the same day, eating just a bit here and a bit there—no one would be the wiser, now would they?

J's Eat Shop and Catering, 4304 Welota Drive, just off Boling Street, held a grand opening Aug. 5 after completing work on the façade of the building. Through a Storefront Improvement Grant from the City of Jackson, owner Rosie Nelson made several changes, all to enhance the restaurant. Those changes included adding two new signs, painting, adding an awning, windows and doors as well as restructuring the building's interior and expanding the office space. Be sure to check it out.

In the past, if you looked at the tiny red brick building smack-up against the railroad tracks, west of the intersection where South Street dead-ends into Gallatin, you would have seen a neighborhood bar, complete with a Turborg Gold sign painted on the wall.

Fast forward to the present and you'll see a brand-new sign announcing Ms. D's Southern Cuisine. Forty-six-year-old Diane Sims says she's living her dream while some might say it's not a dream, but a nightmare. She gave up her 22-year career as a respiratory therapy technician at Rankin Medical Center to open Ms. D's, but Sims told me that she's been cooking since she was a child. "I just love to cook. I used to cook for my family every Sunday." She's proud to say that her restaurant at 503 Gallatin Street, 352-1121, has been open for business since July 6.

Breakfast is from 6:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. For $3.99, you get grits, rice or hash browns; two eggs; bacon, sausage, ham or chicken strips; biscuits or Texas toast. Breakfast sandwiches made of several of the same items are $1.99.

Lunch is served from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. There's a weekly menu for each day of the week that costs $6—one meat, two vegetables, cornbread or roll—as well as sandwiches for $3.25 and several side orders, too. The lunch menu includes fried chicken, roasted chicken, cornbread, Mexican cornbread or roll any day of the week in addition to, for instance, smothered pork chops or meat loaf on Mondays, with a choice of peas, greens, string beans, mashed potatoes with gravy and corn. And it just goes on and on from there. Beverages include milk, OJ, coffee, lemonade, sweetened or unsweetened tea, bottle water, and soft drinks by the glass or the can. And last, but certainly not least—although I don't see how anyone could have any room at all left for it—there's dessert: cobbler, banana pudding, cake, pie and cookies.

Don't worry about off-street parking at Ms. D's. There's plenty of room in the newly black-topped parking lot on the north side. Just remember to angle carefully in or out on Gallatin or Earle, the side street, because the lot is higher than either street. You won't regret it if you take a little trip, take a little trip in your lowrider right on over to Ms. D's.